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Need help brainstorming curriculum ideas for my upcoming school year.  Need by: 8/15/21  Will pay, please refer to attached documents for further instruction! Curriculum Foundations Need by: Sunday, August 15, 2021 Total $30- $15 NOW/ $15 COMPLETE Scenario for the Three Assignments Assume that you are the curriculum designer for a school district. The school board has requested that several teams develop proposals for new curricula to meet newly established state standards. You and your team must develop the first proposal to provide as a pilot or model for the other teams. You have to first identify a specific curriculum area not currently used in the school district that would greatly benefit the students in the district. Use the Internet or the Strayer Library as well as your textbook to develop a pilot curriculum for a specific discipline area such as reading, math, science or grades K–12 at a local school district. Refer to the scenario for the assignments. Build on the same pilot curriculum that was identified in the Curriculum Inception assignment that has been attached for your viewing, please be sure to refer to the original assignment and to answer every question laid out here in the outline for curriculum foundations, thank you! Instructions: Curriculum Foundations Write a 6–7 page paper in which you: ● Summarize the following aspects of the Curriculum Inception assignment: (a) Describe the specific curriculum area and grade level or levels for the pilot curriculum. (b) Provide four core instructional goals for the curriculum. ● Describe the approach to curriculum development (that is, behavior, systems, humanistic) you will use to shape curriculum design, providing a rationale for your selected approach that is consistent with the core instructional goals of the planned curriculum. ● Describe the philosophical/theoretical approach to curriculum development (for example, idealism or realism) you will use to shape the curriculum design, providing a rationale for your selected philosophy that is consistent with the core instructional goals of the planned curriculum. ● Describe the psychological motivational approach to curriculum development you will use to shape the curriculum design, providing a rationale for your selected approach that is consistent with the core instructional goals of the planned curriculum. ● Discuss one cultural influence that has the greatest impact on the school district and provide a rationale for the impact it has on the district. ● Recommend at least one effective way to integrate the cultural influence into the planned curriculum that is consistent with the core instructional goals of the planned curriculum. ● Develop a strategy for incorporating critical thinking skills (appropriate to grade level) into the planned curriculum using Bloom’s Taxonomy of cognitive objectives. ● Provide a rationale for your strategy that is consistent with the core instructional goals of the planned curriculum. (Note: A brief description of Bloom’s Taxonomy may be found at The Center for Teaching and Learning.) ● Use at least six relevant, scholarly references published in the last seven years (that is, three new references in addition to the three identified in the Curriculum Inception assignment). (Note: Wikipedia and other nongovernment websites do not qualify as scholarly resources.) The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is: ● Propose an approach to developing a curriculum that is informed by the audience and needs analysis. http://teaching.uncc.edu/articles-books/best-practice-articles/goals-objectives/blooms-taxonomy-educational-objectives Curriculum Inception Taya Hervey-McNutt Dr. Teresa Lao EDU 555: K-12 Curriculum Design & Development July 27, 2021 Introduction Farrell School District is a rural public school located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. It has been ranked as one of the worst-performing schools in the state. This poor performance is linked to the low level of education among the adults, only 16 \% of the adult population have a bachelor’s degree (Stebbins & Sauter, 1). 43.9\% of the school children live below the poverty line, explaining the poor performance in schools. The most problematic subjects in the schools are math and reading. The percentage of students who are proficient in math and English are 16 and 31 \% respectively (Stebbins & Sauter, 1). I, therefore, believe it would be important to develop a pivot curriculum that improves the math performance in the school. ● Geographical Location Farrell School District is located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. It serves a population of 6,798 in Farell, Wheatlands, and Sharon, Pennsylvania. ● Demographic of the Student population The school has currently enrolled 700 students in pk-12 with only 60 teachers. It operates an elementary school and a high school. According to Niche, the ratio of students to teachers is 12:1 which is below the statutory requirement of 15:1. The average spending per student in the district is $26,975 (Farell, 2). ● Cultural Influences Mercer county has different racial and ethnic compositions. 90.2\% of the population is non-Hispanic white,5.6 \% non-Hispanic African Americans,1.04 \% Hispanic whites, and 0.677 \% non-Hispanic Asians. 90\% of the students speak the English language at home while the rest speak other languages such as Spanish, Asian, Indio-European, ect (Farell, 2). ● Regional accrediting body standards for curriculum development The accredited body standards for curriculum development in Pennsylvania include academic standards on different subjects which must be covered in the curriculum. The body responsible for this is the Pennsylvania Board State of Education. The other standards include assessment anchors for the different disciplines and eligible content that is regulated by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). The state education department has also issued early learning standards that must be incorporated into the curriculum for elementary students (Pennsylvania, 3). ● State and Local policies on curriculum development The policies on curriculum development are contained in Title 22, Chapter 4 of Pennsylvania’s code (Pennsylvania, 3). The code requires that the basis for curriculum development of all students be based on the accredited academic standards. The curriculum should instill critical thinking skills in the students, communication, developmental writing, and literacy skills. The discipline and grade for which the curriculum will be developed The pilot curriculum will address the poor performance of math by 4th grade students. Most students within and outside Feral county dislike math. They feel that it has a lot of complex numbers that are difficult to understand and requires a lot of memorization. Also they find it frustrating having to repeat the same problems to get the hang of it since math requires making lots of mistakes. Also, they feel that math limits their creativity compared to other disciplines such as English and science. There is a fixed way of solving math problems that require memorization which they find burdensome and boring. According to a survey conducted by the National Centre for Education, most of the students have developed stereotypes in math because they heard their parents saying math is boring and difficult. Despite this, some still believe that math is a great discipline that requires the students to put in the extra effort. The discipline is ranked among the worst performed subjects in the US. Farrell school area ranked among the bottom 50 schools in Pennsylvania. Only 16\% of its students are proficient in math with grade 4 registering the least performance. In 2018, the level of poor performance of math in grade 4 was at 58 \% compared to other grades that scored below 50\% (Farell, 2). Math is a vital discipline that can benefit students in various ways. It enhances their problem skills, helps them to understand the world better, and equips them with skills that they can use to solve real-world problems (Sammons, 4). These skills are very essential for the students in this area since poor performance is also linked to the poverty levels in the country. Farrell school district is in a poverty-stricken area with a high teacher turnover rate. The ratio of students to teachers is 15:1 which is below the statutory recommendations (Stebbins & Sauter, 1). The schools lack a well-structured curriculum that can help improve the student’s performance. Additionally, most of the parents are not educated and fail to support the children, and the teachers increase the performance gap. Benefits of pilot curriculum to the students A pilot curriculum is essential for determining the areas that need improvement and how to best attain the desired educational goals. It is essential for schools like Farrell school area district that is based in a poverty-stricken rural area with limited access to resources. The curriculum will help in mitigating the problems associated with the obsolete curriculum that may arise in the future. Before design a pilot curriculum, the stakeholders need to address the following questions ● The specific areas that need improvement ● What are the required resources per student ● Can the school afford the resources ● What learning theories will be adopted ● Will the learning theories apply to all the learners ● How will the curriculum cater for the learners with learning disabilities ● What are the anticipated learning outcomes ● How will the new curriculum help change the perception of the students about math This program enables the stakeholders to determine how satisfied the students are with the old curriculum and use it to develop the pilot curriculum. They will be able to identify the areas that need improvement and facilitate the effective allocation of resources. This is achieved through standardized tests which enable the teachers to identify the students that need specialized care and areas where they need to allocate more time and resources. This eases the planning process and increases the outcomes of the curriculum development. The benefits that will accrue to the students are as follows ; ● Higher performance This will be achieved through standardized testing. Taking part in the standardized tests will enable the students to identify their areas of weakness that require improvement. They will then communicate this to the teachers and stakeholders who will incorporate their needs into the new curriculum. The students, with the help of the teachers, will begin working on their weaknesses which will be enhanced with the inception of the new curriculum improving their performance. The teachers will also be able to identify the students with learning disabilities before the onset of the implementation of the curriculum and issue instructional goals to help increase their performance ● Increased Motivation Students feel motivated when they are engaged in the curriculum development process. They will be willing to change their perception about the discipline when they realize the administration wants to address their concerns. One of the causative factors of the student’s negative perception of mathematics is lack of motivation. This is achieved through issuing test-based incentives where the students are given a target and rewarded when they achieve it. The students are therefore motivated to work harder to qualify for the incentives increasing their learning outcomes. ● Increased Learning Outcomes Setting targets and rewarding students for achieving them increases their learning outcomes. Once a student hits the set target, the bar is set higher and the number of incentives also increased. The student’s learning outcomes will gradually increase over time as they strive to reach their targets to attract the incentives. In the process, they will identify their weaknesses and communicate them with the curriculum developer or their teachers who will ensure that the inception of the new curriculum addresses their needs. Instructional goals Instructional goals are the desired learning outcomes from the inception of the pilot curriculum. The four instructional goals include; critical thinking, problem-solving, understanding the mathematical language, and increased mathematical confidence ● Critical thinking The first instructional goal for the curriculum is critical thinking that deviates from the old approach of memorization to an advanced way of tackling numerical problems. Critical thinking skills are important when solving math problems as it makes learning to be more significant and purposeful (Toh & Chua, 5). It will enable the students to internalize the problems and take predetermined steps without just guessing hence increasing their performance. The new curriculum will issue guidelines on the activities that the students will be engaged in to improve their performance. This includes issuing open-ended questions on areas such as addition and subtraction of fractions and letting them attempt the problems before stepping in. The teachers will also utilize tools such as Bloom’s Taxonomy and Maths300 to improve critical thinking among the students. Given the economic nature of the Farrell district, the school will need to apply for more funds from the state to implement these strategies which I believe will be useful in improving the student’s learning outcomes ● Problem Solving Problem-solving is another instructional goal that will improve the student’s learning outcomes. The concept of problem-solving is based on the fact that math should be understood and not memorized. Most of the 4th-grade students at Ferrell fail mathematics because they tackle it the same way they handle other disciplines. Problem-solving enables the students to internalize the problem, analyze it and be able to explain the procedure if given similar problems (Liljedahl & Santos-Trigo, 6). This concept applies to the topics of measurement conversion and decimal notations. ● Understanding the Mathematical Language The other instructional goal for the new curriculum is to ensure the students comprehend the mathematical language. Understanding math vocabulary is vital for achieving proficiency in the discipline. The students can utilize critical thinking and problem-solving skills if they apprehend math vocabulary. The pilot curriculum requires the teachers to start teaching math vocabulary such as the different symbols, where and how to use them as early as grade one. The students will be conversant with the symbols when they get to the 4th grade hence improving their performance. ● Increased Confidence Students who lack confidence will never attempt to answer mathematical questions in class. They always keep their heads and avoid making eye contact whenever the teacher asks a question. This is the leading cause of poor performance because the students fail to challenge themselves hence retarding their learning process. A confident student strives to learn new ways of solving math problems by attempting advanced problems. They are not afraid to make mistakes which increases their math skills. To achieve this goal, the teachers should always praise the students whenever they get a problem right, however simple it may be, and encourage them to attempt advanced ones (Toh & Chua, 5). Also, the pilot curriculum requires the teachers to listen to the student’s needs. They can utilize this to understand the student’s areas of weakness and develop ways of boosting their confidence and improving their performance. This can be done by issuing rewards whenever a shy student attempts to solve a question during class. References 1. Stebbins, S., & Sauter, M. B. (2020, March 11). Making the grade?: In these school districts, students are less likely to succeed. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/11/school-districts-50-us-where-students -least-likely-succeed/5000094002/. 2. Farell Area School District. (2021). Farrell Area School District. https://www.farrellareaschools.com/. 3. Pennsylvania State Board of Education. (2021). Regulations & Policy. State Board of Education. https://www.stateboard.education.pa.gov/Regulations/Pages/default.aspx. 4. Sammons, L. (2018). Teaching students to communicate mathematically. 5. Toh, P. C., Chua, B. L., & Association of Mathematics Educators (Singapore). (2018). Mathematics instruction: Goals, tasks, and activities. 6. Liljedahl, P., Santos-Trigo, M. (2019). Mathematical problem solving: Current themes, trends and research.